EDFRINGE REVIEW: Pip Utton's Farewell to the Fringe (Pip Utton)

Bacon - ★★★★☆ - Raw
Hunchback of Notre Dame - ★★★★☆ - Visceral
And Before I Forget I Love You, I Love You - ★★★★★ - Extraordinary

Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33): Wed 19 – Sat 29 Aug 2026
Review by Rebecca Mahar

Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 1 September 2026. Edited by Thom Dibdin.

After thirty-four years, Pip Utton bids farewell to Edinburgh Fringe with a one-man repertory of three plays: Bacon, Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Before I Forget I Love You, I Love You.

Each piece is sharply distinct in tenor and in the characters which Utton inhabits, this is a send-off which demonstrates his impressive range as an actor and writer.

If there’s one thing Utton does brilliantly, it’s “the moment before.” Prior to beginning a play, a scene, a monologue, or whatever dramatic feat is to come, an actor considers the moment immediately before what is to come: what is the character’s mental, emotional, physical state; what has just happened to them, that shapes how they step onto the stage?

Before every show, Utton embodies his own “moment before” onstage: in front of the arriving audience, and so including them in the psychological preparation of the monodrama.

Pip Utton performs Bacon.

Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review!

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